Surmount the Wall

Many runners hit a wall at some point. I'm not talking about the wall you hit at mile 20 during a marathon. Rather, I'm talking about a training wall, where no matter how hard you work at it, you fail to see results. Somehow you know you can do better. You just can't seem to get there.

To help runners in such a predicament, I've come up with the eight commandments of training. If you follow them religiously, you'll surmount that wall, climbing your way to higher fitness and better performance.

1. Be specific. Practice running your goal pace on courses that simulate your goal race. For instance, if you're going to run a marathon, do a long run of up to 12 miles at your goal marathon speed. If you're going to run a 10-K, do long intervals at your 10-K goal pace. If you're going to run in hilly races, focus your training on heavy-duty hills.

2. Be progressive. As you become more fit, increase the difficulty of your training by doing one of the following: adding more repeats to your interval and hill sessions, reducing the recoveries between intervals, speeding up the intervals as your race times improve, adding onto your weekly mileage or increasing the length of your longest run.

3. Vary your training. To run as well as you possibly can, you need to work on five performance factors: strength, power, max VO2, economy and lactate threshold. Reserve a four- to six-week block of time to work on one of these areas, and then move on to a second emphasis with completely different workouts.

4. Focus on 5-K pace. Your 5-K speed is great for boosting max VO2. In order to get this boost, run 4 x 1200 at 5-K race pace, with 3-minute recoveries. To improve running economy, do 400s or 800s slightly faster than 5-K speed. To raise lactate threshold, complete 2000s or 2400s slightly slower than 5-K pace.

5. Taper. If you're going to run a marathon, do an 18- to 22-mile long run four or five weeks before the race, but stay away from runs longer than 12 miles during the last month before the event. Although such long runs are psychologically appealing, they prevent your leg muscles from recovering. You end up at the marathon starting line with tired and tattered muscles. Taper for four weeks before your marathon. Don't worry, your body won't forget how to "go long."

For 5-Ks, taper for a week. For 10-Ks, two weeks. During your taper, you also want to avoid massive interval workouts during the last few weeks before your marathon. These have become popular, but--like long runs--they tear down your leg muscles instead of restoring them before your big day. You're much safer with only three to four 800-meter repeats at 5-K pace.

6. Recover as seriously as you train. Muscles need at least 36 hours to completely recover from any hard workout. So if you don't take at least one day off each week, you never fully recover from your training. In addition, plan one very easy week during every four to six weeks of training, and take one month off every year by running very lightly or cross-training. Instead of trying to establish a consecutive-days-of-training streak, shoot for a streak of successive training weeks during which you have gotten good rest.

7. Work tirelessly on your speed. At the beginning of your training year, focus on 200s and 400s at a pace 8 seconds faster per 400 than your 5-K pace. After you've increased your strength by building up mileage and emphasizing hill training for four to six weeks, increase the quantity of speedwork with intervals of 400s and 600s slightly faster than 5-K pace, and 800s and 1000s around 5-K pace.

8. Have fun. Whenever it's time to train, leave your worries behind and enjoy your workout. The more relaxed you run, the less energy you'll use. If you let running feel good, tip-top fitness and outstanding racing will surely follow.

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